April 26th 1607 - Admiral Christopher Newport set the landing party ashore at the present site of Virginia Beach. Three days later they erected a cross at the landing site and conducted the first religious ceremony of the Church of England in America. Fearing the area was too susceptible to attack from the Natives and Spanish, Admiral Newport chose a small island on the James River to establish the first permanent English Colony in the new world, Jamestown. Fourteen years later the colonists settled in the area that is now Virginia Beach.

Abundant fishing and fertile soil assured the areas success but, founded in 1887, Virginia Beach developed as a resort following construction of a hotel and a railroad linking it with Norfolk After World War I it became an important base in the national coastal-defense system and today is home to Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, Oceana Naval Air Station, and Fleet Combat Direction Systems Warfare Training Center at Dam Neck.